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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28606419">our better angels</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chicaroscuro/pseuds/Chicaroscuro'>Chicaroscuro</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Assassins - Sondheim/Weidman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Daemons, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:27:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,377</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28606419</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chicaroscuro/pseuds/Chicaroscuro</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The assassins and their daemons.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>our better angels</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>1</strong>
</p>
<p>Of course there was some gossip, about John having a male daemon. People <em>did</em> talk. But when Strato settled, it was as if everything snapped into perfect clarity. A mere female of the species would have been so dull, nothing like the bright and bold creature he's become. <em>This</em> is what they were meant to be.</p>
<p>As he stands on the stage for the last time and cries out - <em>sic semper</em> just as they rehearsed - Strato flies down from the box to join him. His tail streams emerald, and though his country’s flag no longer flies, John realizes that he can think of no finer victory banner than this.</p>
<p>After, in the barn, John's hands are shaking, and he can’t reach far enough down the barrel of the rifle. Strato's claws are steady as they slip around the trigger. It's fitting.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>2</strong>
</p>
<p>Ésorilé is loud. Loud in every way she can be, all bright bold colors and strong voice, living proof of God's favor in them both. What a lovely soul he has!</p>
<p>They did what they were sent here to do, so it's near blasphemous to destroy either of them. But here they are, and Charlie can't grow wings and fly away. <em>He's </em>trapped. So, as they always have, they make a plan.</p>
<p>When he's brought out to the gallows, Ésorilé grips his shoulder tight, and takes off. She flies and flies, and he sings his hymn until the pull between them is so strong that he thinks it might kill him before the drop does.</p>
<p>They put a hood over his head, so he never actually sees whether or not she makes it over the rooftops and out of sight. But she is with him again when it's over. Well, they agree, it was a valiant effort. They challenge anybody to forget <em>that!</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>3</strong>
</p>
<p>Leon doesn't know what his daemon has settled as. Neither does anybody else he knows.</p>
<p>She's lithe and has no trouble slipping silently around his feet and those of the other men in the factory. She doesn't get in the way. Still, her short fur offers little protection; her back and shoulders are as scarred as his hands. Her strange species only makes them look more foreign. She’s ugly. But that only stands to reason.</p>
<p>Ms. Goldman's daemon is <em>beautiful</em>.</p>
<p>"My name is Leon Czolgosz," he says, "and Szłotka." Leon has no one. He can number the people who know his daemon's name on one hand. But - Ms. Goldman deserves this from him.</p>
<p>“Lovely,” Ms. Goldman says, her dark eyes looking over them both. “It is lovely to meet you.” And her daemon reaches up to touch noses with Szłotka, as if they were as good and worthy as anyone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>4</strong>
</p>
<p>It's hard to remember how they were before the pain began.</p>
<p>Scarrisa would lay in the sun sometimes, they think. Now she is always hidden away, tucked inside his collar or coiled around his arm beneath his shirtsleeve. She is small and black, easy to hide. The other men call it strange and avoid them. All the better.</p>
<p>When the pain comes sharp, she digs her fangs into Zangara's skin. She is not a venomous snake; it is no trouble. It helps ground him, gives him something outside himself to focus on.</p>
<p>But she feels all his pain. They're a serpent tied in knots, devouring itself. They can't go on like this forever.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>5</strong>
</p>
<p>She's a goose. People underestimate geese - think they're just fat pieces of shit that sit around eating bread all day. But Clarice has teeth in that beak, and her wings can break bones.</p>
<p>Not that it's any good. Especially around here. She's like a clumsier, uglier version of that peacock always swanning around with Booth. Sometimes Sam'd like to kick him, and whether he means Booth or the peacock really depends on the day.</p>
<p>Sometimes, maybe, he’d sort of like to kick <em>her.</em></p>
<p>Still. Still. Maybe they’re plain, but nobody ever realizes geese have teeth until it’s too late. They almost brought down a whole-ass plane once, y’know! How’s <em>that </em>for a fat-ass goose?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>6</strong>
</p>
<p>Lacie's never been able to sit still. She flits around when they meet Squeaky, flutters around Squeaky's daemon's ears until he snaps at her. "That's <em>rude!" </em>Sara Jane gasps as her little bird returns to her shoulder. But a minute later, the whole thing's forgotten, and Lacie's twittering on about something else.</p>
<p>There's always just a little too much going on. That's all.</p>
<p>Lacie’s not her first name. They change that a lot too. It’s practically a miracle they even settled; they’d been sure for years that they never would. "She did, though," she says when she tells the whole thing to Squeaky later. "But at least we can still change names whenever we want. I hate sticking to one, it's just so <em>drab."</em></p>
<p>"But don't you want your name to go down in history? The one you have when we do this, it's going to be tied to you forever."</p>
<p>Always so intense, that girl. Sara Jane breaks her gaze, looks instead at her own fluttering soul. She never seems to know where to land. "Oh, I don’t know. It's as good a name as any, I guess."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>7</strong>
</p>
<p>"Didn’t you change yours, too?"</p>
<p>Charlie flashes his teeth, sending the little bird daemon squeaking and fluttering away again.</p>
<p>"It's his name," is still all Squeaky says. Isn't it <em>obvious </em>they changed it? And isn't it obvious why? His name doesn't matter; <em>her </em>name doesn't matter. Those just came from their shitty parents, who cares? The only important thing is Charlie. If she could sear his name into her soul's flesh, she would - but names are the only brand she has.</p>
<p>"Oh. Well, I guess it's nice, isn’t it? You're like a little matched set!"</p>
<p>Squeaky curls her lip in disdain and marches over, grabbing her daemon by the ruff. "You see this?" The collar is black leather. Sometimes it blends in with his fur, but they always feel it. "This isn’t some cute little <em>decoration. </em>We’re not playing <em>fucking </em>dress-up. This - " She shakes her daemon once for emphasis. " - means that he belongs to <em>Charlie."</em></p>
<p>Sara finally shuts up for a minute after <em>that.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>8</strong>
</p>
<p>Minks are supposed to be fancy, aren't they?</p>
<p>Stina curls around his neck when they walk, but John knows no one sees her past <em>him. </em>He's still awkward and ugly as ever. They just need someone who can see him for what he is. She proves it, she <em>proves </em>that he’s more than everyone thinks he is!</p>
<p>She'd fit perfectly curled up against Jodie's daemon. They have pictures of him, too, glossy magazine photos of the two of them out on the town together.</p>
<p>They even - and this is something <em>no one </em>can see, even worse than Squeaky catching them singing - they even have a stuffed animal just like him. Just for Stina to practice cuddling with, of course. Just for John to pet occasionally, sometimes.</p>
<p>It’s important that they practice. One day soon, they'll have the real thing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strike> <strong>9</strong> </strike>
</p>
<p>(The Balladeer's daemon is vibrant, with feathers in bright yellow and orange and green. She's loud and unafraid, even when other daemons snap and snarl at her. She laughs when Booth’s last words burn, and her wingbeats scatter the embers into the dirt.</p>
<p>When they converge finally on her human, she finally goes quiet.</p>
<p>When Booth reaches up bare-handed to snatch her from the air, she screams and screams and <em>screams.</em></p>
<p>After a moment or two, the screaming stops.</p>
<p>Nobody knows what her name was.)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>9</strong>
</p>
<p>Lee comes back with them, and his polecat daemon slinks along at his heels.</p>
<p>They don’t speak about it. But then, they have never spoken often. Even there in the warehouse, when all the others chorused their desperation and adulation alike, she was - silent.</p>
<p>Would she have encouraged it? He casts her the occasional glance, when the others are all distracted with arguing amongst themselves. Sometimes their eyes meet. But she always looks away, and she never says a word.</p>
<p>Maybe he doesn't even care about her opinion. Why should he? She's never taken much more notice of him than anybody else. So who cares?</p>
<p>Eventually, he stops looking.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Booth &amp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/z81xVBj.jpg">Strato</a>, a peacock<br/>Guiteau &amp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/ysCqlwV.jpg">Ésorilé</a>, a chestnut-mandibled toucan<br/>Czolgosz &amp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/r27xUdf.jpg">Szłotka</a>, a fossa<br/>Zangara &amp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/zvn4ZLM.jpg">Scarrisa</a>, a black racer snake<br/>Byck &amp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/ulasZQB.jpg">Clarice</a>, a Canada goose<br/>Moore &amp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/R5k0IhR.jpg">Lacie</a>, a western tanager<br/>Fromme &amp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/V5kJHcR.jpg">Charlie</a>, a Belgian sheepdog<br/>Hinckley &amp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/upPo15G.jpg">Stina</a>, a mink<br/>The Balladeer &amp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/6G4NbFI.jpg">a sun conure</a><br/>Oswald &amp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/w6iTJyt.jpg">a marbled polecat</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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